A Real Scare
by SKdaGamer
Summary: Spyro had never enjoyed Halloween. Being constantly scared by his friends was not something he was into, so as Halloween rolls around once more Spyro is more nervous than ever. It doesn't help when Cynder tries to get into the holiday and something goes terribly wrong. - Oneshot


"Boo!" the little yellow hatchling cried out, jumping out at Spyro.

Spyro feigned a fright, stepping backwards and let out a gasp, causing Cynder to laugh from beside him. "Did I scare you?" the hatchling asked, pulling off his scary troll mask and looking at Spyro with big yellow eyes, wincing as he tried not to look into the big street light that illuminated the road shrouded in the early evening darkness.

"Yes you did. What a scary young dragon you are," Spyro chuckled, patting the hatchling on the head.

The hatchling turned around, eyes gleaming with glee as he looked at his four friends, all wearing their masks tilted up on top of their heads, exposing their surprised expressions. "Did you see that? Did you see _that_?!" the yellow hatchling exclaimed enthusiastically, jumping up and down before running towards them. "I scared Spyro! I scared the purple dragon!"

Spyro looked over towards Cynder, both of them chuckling, before they continued their way home down the streets of Warfang. They were both twenty-two, having been seven years since the war with Malefor ended, and those past years had been super peaceful; they'd even become mates since then. The peace was a nice change.

There was one day that brought Spyro great discomfort however, and it was today. Today was Halloween and Spyro hated the day; it somehow had become culture to try and scare the purple dragon every year, and even the guardians were involved in it. During the day and early evening it was fine as little kids tried to scare him, which was honestly the cutest thing ever. He detested the late night however as the kids went to bed and the adults began to have their fun, and some of the things they pulled were pretty terrifying.

Terrador had put in the effort last year to hire a professional make-up artist who had given him one of the goriest makeovers Spyro, Cynder, Volteer and Cyril had ever seen. He'd gotten Cynder in on the prank too and in the middle of the night, it was arranged that Cynder would wake Spyro, feeling unsettled due to a nightmare, before she would lead Spyro out for a bit of a walk to calm her mind, wanting his company. She'd told Spyro to lead, faking nervousness and fear, and it was then that Terrador had jumped out of him, fake blood caking his entire form and hideous yellow contacts glistening in the wild electric light that Volteer produced from the other side of the hallway. Poor Spyro had fainted, leaving behind a puddle of shame after his scare.

He was just lucky they'd calmed him down quick enough after he came to. Spyro would've decked Terrador otherwise. Lots of profanity was exchanged however, Spyro could remember _that_ much. The imagery of the fake blood on Terrador's form still shook him to his core. Even thinking about it now unnerved him. He only wished that the kids were the only ones to scare him and the adults would leave him alone. The kids were cute, the masks and dress-ups weren't frightening, and he'd always feign a reaction just to make them smile.

Cynder's giggle brought him out of his thoughts. "You thinking about what happened last year?" she asked him.

"Yes, that wasn't nice," Spyro groaned, giving her a slightly upset glare. "Terrador scared me out of my scales."

"Oh I _know_, if that prepubescent screech and the urine you left behind was enough to go by."

"Shut up. I just want to go straight to bed tonight," Spyro said stubbornly, pausing before adding, "And I'm locking the door."

"Come on, you've at _least_ got to stay around for the celebration and the parties. And you have to admit, some of the costumes are pretty damn good."

"_Fine_, only because you told me to. If I deck someone because they scared me, I'll blame you for it."

"What if it's me?"

"I wouldn't _dare_ deck _you_, Cynder," Spyro snapped, before taking a double-take. "Wait, are you planning something?"

"No, not this year. I was just asking."

"You know I love you, Cynder. Why would I hit you?"

Cynder just chuckled, before bringing him in for a quick kiss. After a few seconds their lips parted, and Cynder let out another breathy chuckle. "You'll be fine, Spyro. It's just Halloween, it's not like any of these costumes are actually real monsters that could hurt you," she reassured softly.

"Because of Terrador last year, I'd think otherwise," Spyro chuckled.

Cynder just smiled, knowing he was taking it a bit more lightly as he joked about it. Still she didn't think he should be so scared over it. It was just a holiday, just dress-ups, and all a bit of fun. No one was really getting hurt.

Cynder actually really liked the dress-ups. She was all for creativity and some of the costumes were very inspiring and well done. Cynder would always walk down the streets just looking for creative costumes. Even though she enjoyed the costumes, she'd never dressed up herself. She decided that she wanted to try something. It'd just be simple, knowing that she didn't have time to prepare one, but she wanted at least a cloak or something to make her look ominous, although her dark scales and markings already made her look that way.

Wanting to find something, she turned to Spyro. "Hey, Spyro. I honestly want to try dressing up this year. I'm gonna head out to the marketplace and find something," she said.

"You're not planning on scaring me, are you?" Spyro asked cautiously.

"Ancestors no, why would I?" Cynder exclaimed. "You _know _I like the costumes for Halloween."

"I know you also like scaring me though."

"I said I wasn't planning something, I'm still not. Just calm down Spyro. I'm not scaring you this year."

"Oh… o-okay," Spyro said. "Alright, well have fun. I guess I'll see you later."

She turned and walked into the main marketplace of Warfang, eyeing each stall looking for costumes she was interested in. Most of the ones she passed had costumes only fitted for cheetahs or moles, and there were some made for dragons but they were too small for her; she was pretty tall for a dragoness after all. Cynder walked a little bit further down the market before she saw a small stall set up, dark pieces of clothing and creepy masks adorning the shelves and racks inside it. There were large cloaks mixed with small ones; obviously the stall took into account dragons as well as cheetahs and moles. A female cheetah wearing a black cloak and silver jewelry attended to the stall, black tattoos marking her blue furry arms, shaped like serpents.

She stepped forward, eyeing a sleek black cloak as well as some other gruesome props nearby. The cheetah noticed her gaze and chuckled lowly, her voice pretty deep for a female, and was also smooth and sleek. "Hello, young dragoness. Are you looking for some costuming and make-up for Halloween?" she questioned.

Cynder blinked, caught off guard by how sleek her voice was. She blinked, before replying, "Uh, yes. I'm liking the black cloak over there."

The cheetah turned towards it, smiling and picking it up. "Ah yes. Good choice. May I also suggest some jewelry to go along with it?" she asked.

Cynder hesitated, before agreeing. "What would you recommend?" she questioned.

She was about to inquire whether silver or gold would look better on her, especially as she was never really the jewelry-wearing type - apart from the choker and bracers she wore - but the cheetah had already started speaking. "How about something like this?" she suggested, grabbing a long silver chain necklace that bore a glowing purple crystal at the end of it.

The purple crystal glowed ominously, the intensity of the glow wavering and pulsing rhythmically. Cynder was enthralled by it, and she thought it _would_ look good on her. The purple was beautiful, but it was also eerie. Perfect for a night like Halloween. "I'll take them," Cynder said with a smile.

The cheetah smiled back at her, revealing gleaming white fangs that glistened with saliva. "Alright, that'll be fifty silver pieces," she said professionally.

With that, Cynder handed the cheetah the money in exchange for her new clothing. She quickly made her way home, getting ready for tonight. She entered her room and laid the cloak and necklace down on the large bed for two, before looking at herself in the mirror. A small amount of doubt entered her thoughts as she wondered how well it would look, but she ignored the thoughts and put the cloak on carefully, adjusting it on her shoulders, and bringing the hood up over her horns, causing it to droop over her face. It already made her look eerie with the sleek black fabric of the cloak, which also had some frills jutting from around the neck. The cloak was slightly uncomfortable with her choker on, so she unclipped it and took it off, as she did with her bracers. It wasn't often she took these off, but for this occasion she did. With her neck free of the spiked choker, she buttoned the cloak against her throat, smiling at how she looked, before she put the necklace on. The glow of the purple crystal intensified when she put it on, but Cynder didn't pay it much attention.

Ancestors, she looked beautiful and elegant, especially without the choker and bracers. She smiled before turning away, walking out of the room and leaving the house ready to find Spyro again. It was late into the night by the time she was outside.

Meanwhile Spyro sat in Diggedee's Pub eating dinner with three of his friends. To Spyro's right there was an ice dragon named Saradon, fit with two pairs of white horns on top of his head, intertwining with each other behind the icicle-like crest on the top of his head. He was studying magical science and had been for the past two years. On the other side of the table in front of Spyro was Hradir, a bulky earth dragon that was missing several teeth and had a large scar on his right leg. These were wounds from when he was a kid; he was a very careless youngling and he did some pretty stupid things that ended up in him getting hurt. Beside Hradir and opposite Saradon was Burdaar, a lightning dragon with a rather slim build and large eyes. He was nervous and introverted but coped pretty well among Spyro, Saradon and Hradir. None of them had costumes on. Burdaar planned to, but he had family issues arise these past few weeks and didn't have time to prepare. His family had always been pretty divided and filled with lots of arguing, so it wasn't really anything new to him.

A dark night had fallen over Warfang, and Spyro felt a sense of unease as he saw people walking their kids home from outside the pub. This was the time when the _real_ scares happened. He stopped eating, staring at his plate of venison before Saradon noticed his discomfort. "Spyro, are you alright?" Saradon asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just… It's Halloween, you know?" Spyro replied. "I don't like Halloween that much. I don't like being scared."

"Oh it's alright, Spyro. We don't like it too much either," Hradir reassured him.

"I just like the costumes," Burdaar said.

"Like Cynder does," Spyro said with a smile. "She went off earlier to go find a costume for herself actually. I don't expect it to be anything too big due to her only getting it today, but I'm sure it'll look good on her."

Burdaar took a bite of his own food, a berry platter, before he responded, "Knowing Cynder, she'll find something good."

Spyro just chuckled, knowing Burdaar was right. He was the only one out of his three friends here that had mates, but they were all really happy for him and Cynder. Cynder had her own friends as well, and Spyro wondered whether she was spending time with them. After all, it had been a while since she left.

"It's been a while since she went to go get some costuming though," Spyro muttered.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, Spyro. She's probably out with her own friends or something," Hradir replied.

Spyro just nodded. That was what he thought too, but it wasn't like Cynder to not tell him where she was going. Surely it didn't take too long to get some clothes for costuming, although to be fair he'd never gone in Halloween and he knew those stores were busy, and he'd also never gone shopping with Cynder for clothes and jewelry before because he knew how much she liked them.

"Hey, Spyro!" a feminine voice called from behind him, and he turned around to see Xareeva, one of Cynder's friends, a bright red fire dragoness with a very loud, aggressive personality. "Have you seen Cynder recently? I've been wondering where she is and I'm surprised she isn't with you."

"She went out shopping to grab a last-minute costume," Spyro explained with a shrug. "But I'm surprised she's taken this long. I supposed she'd be with you, Korda or Revvie, or that she was just a bit indecisive, which isn't really like her anyway."

Xareeva shrugged, before asking if she could sit beside Spyro, who willingly obliged. "So, how's your day been, Xareeva?" Spyro asked.

"Yeah, it's been pretty good. Spent the day with my family, played with my niece before supervising her during the trick or treating earlier this evening. I reckon she had a lot of fun. After that I came here for a bit of food. I also saw you here so I figured Cynder would be too, but I was obviously wrong."

"We're also wondering where she is too," Hradir muttered with a shrug. "She should be fine though."

"I was going to go find her after dinner anyway," Spyro said. "I just want to find her and let her know that I'm going home. I don't want to stick around tonight; I have had enough scares over the past few years."

Xareeva, Saradon, Hradir and Burdaar just burst into laughter at Spyro. "Yeah, Cynder told me about the scare Terrador gave you," Xareeva guffawed.

"As did she with us," Saradon chuckled.

"I swear you guys are against me more often than not," Spyro scoffed. "You're always ganging up on me in spars and games. You even started eating competitions and calling me slow when I was the last to finish."

"Hey, that last one was mainly Hradir," Burdaar blamed innocently, causing the Hradir to snarl playfully in response.

Spyro just rolled his eyes. He just ignored the remark and continued eating his food. A few seconds after he took a bite of venison and began chewing on it, he felt a small furry paw touch his back. Not expecting the sudden touch, he jumped, choking on his food. He retched and coughed the half-chewed up venison across the table, before taking heavy breaths to try and calm himself down, as well as fill his lungs with air again. The dragons around him just laughed at his unfortunate scare.

"Sorry, Spyro. I didn't mean to scare you like that," a familiar, deep voice chuckled.

Spyro turned around and saw Hunter dressed in black clothing rather than his usual dark red fabrics. He had some temporary tattoos on his face, all ancient runes from the feline language. With the black tattoos and clothing as well as the natural black spots on his body, he looked pretty creepy. Seeing him made Spyro's breath hitch slightly, but he didn't jump like he had done at Hunter's touch.

"Oh, h-h-hey, Hunter," Spyro stammered, still recovering from his fright. "What are you doing here?"

"I felt I'd better come back for a visit since I haven't been here in a good seven months. And I also haven't been to a Halloween party here so I figured I'd come along and get involved," Hunter explained. "Are you alright Spyro? You're not usually that jumpy."

"I just don't like Halloween. Never enjoyed getting scared and I think I make myself way too nervous about it which makes me more prone to getting scared."

"He has his reasons though, you should've seen what Terrador did to him last year," Saradon chuckled.

"Oh, I'll have to ask him about it when I see him next," Hunter said with a smirk. "I want to hear it from his own perspective."

"I was the one that got scared, why not mine?!" Spyro exclaimed.

"Because you'd probably overexaggerate it after the scare you had from it, purple boy." Saradon laughed, patting Spyro on the back in a friendly matter.

Spyro just rolled his eyes. Hunter chuckled and began to start up conversation. "So how's everything been since we last saw each other, Spyro? Everything going well with Cynder?" he asked.

"Yeah, pretty good. We did lots of house renovations a while ago so that went well. Other than that, not much has happened. Life's been pretty chill for the past seven months," Spyro explained. "How about you?"

"I got promoted to second-in-command. Chief Prowlus decided he needed help running the village, as well as a second opinion. You know how he is."

"I'm surprised he acknowledged he needed one."

"It took a bit of convincing from his mate to do of course, but he eventually agreed."

"Well anyway, congratulations, Hunter. I'm guessing you're here on a mission in that case?"

"No, Prowlus decided to give me a week's break. He said I earned it. I still feel like there's more I could be doing at home but I'm an overachiever and I overwork myself a lot. I guess I kinda need it," Hunter replied.

Spyro just smiled, before a trio of loud screams tore through the air from outside the pub, before loud laughter ensued. He winced at the sound, before groaning. "Ugh, this is when all the big scares happen. Yay me," Spyro moaned.

"Don't worry about it, Spyro," Burdaar said. "The scares are all for a bit of fun. They're short-lived and they won't harm you."

"Plus you're stressing too much about it. I know you're a bit jumpy around this time but you didn't have a problem with things leaping out at you in the war," Hunter added.

"Some of those things still scared the hell out of me though," Spyro replied as another distant shout reached his ears, causing him to flinch. "Plus, I was fifteen when we met, Hunter. Twelve when I _started_ fighting in the war. Those things were pretty damn scary. I guess that kind of had an impact on me even now, hence why I'm so jumpy all these years later. We live in a time of peace, scares like this shouldn't be happening."

"It's alright, Spyro. And like Burdaar said, it's all out of a bit of fun," Hradir said with a smile. "You're going to be fine."

Spyro just nodded, before he winced as more shouts and angered yells filled the air. He sighed, before continuing to eat his dinner, as did Saradon, Hradir and Burdaar. Xareeva and Hunter indulged in their own conversation as they got to know each other. He ignored all the screams of the unfortunate victims of their friends and family as people scared each other, but just as he was finishing his last bite of venison, a scream tore through the air that was more terror-stricken than all the rest. The scream was short and snappy, but well pronounced, and it sent a shiver down Spyro's spine. It was well into the night and a scream like that didn't mean anything good.

There was a loud crashing sound as a fire dragon threw himself through the large wooden doors of the pub clumsily, sending splinters flying everywhere, sliding on the ground and tripping over his black cloak, causing him to fall face-first into the ground. He picked himself up and let out another whimpering cry, scrambling backwards into the bar, breathing heavily.

Something wasn't right here, so Spyro stood and walked towards the dragon for closer whole pub was quiet as they stared at the dragon. "Hey, are you alright?" Spyro asked, but as he got closer he noticed a cut on the fire dragon's golden chest, slowly oozing blood. It was thin, but it still looked pretty nasty.

The fire dragon just stammered unintelligibly in response to Spyro's question, and this made the purple dragon even more worried. He knew the scares on Halloween were all out of fun, so who would think of _cutting_ someone just to scare them? This was a serious issue if this was the case. The cut wasn't from the door he had smashed running into the pub. The fire dragon had some splinters, sure, but this cut looked too big and too severe to be from the door. No, this had to be something else.

Spyro turned back towards Hunter, Saradon, Hradir, Burdaar and Xareeva, a look of concern on his face. Their expressions dropped upon seeing his concern, as did everyone else's as they latched onto the discomfort ebbing from him. Spyro turned his gaze back to the fire dragon, who stared out of the front doors of the pub, thrown off their hinges from his impact.

"Hey, whatever your name is, you need to tell me what's going on, or I don't know how I can help. I can't tell this isn't just a comedic scare for the fun of it," Spyro said.

As soon as he said that, the dragon burst into another round of screams, eyes wide and pupils tiny. His lips were pulled back to the point that his gums were exposed, and he tried scrambling back even further, but was stopped by the edge of the bar.

Spyro whirled around to follow the dragon's gaze and stopped with a terrified gasp at who he saw standing there. It was Cynder, wearing a large black cloak, a silver necklace hanging from her long neck with a pulsing purple crystal attached to the end of it. Her eyes were red and a heavy shadow hung over them. The dark markings on her forehead also had a faint glow to them. Her head was hung low, eyes tilted upwards to look at him, giving her a much more threatening look. On her left forepaw, her claws had a tiny stain of blood on them.

The purple dragon didn't know what to say. He stammered for a bit, before he found his words. "Cynder… if this is your idea of a joke, this isn't funny. This dragon here is terrified of you," Spyro said, his voice shaking with fear. "And if he's in on this and this is all part of a trick to scare me, because I know you like scaring me, I'm not going to be happy. Stop this now, Cynder."

Cynder didn't respond.

"Cynder?"

Once more, she didn't respond.

"Cynder? Please answer me, or I swear I'll…"

She snarled, low and forceful. The fire dragon lying on the ground beside Spyro continued screaming, and everyone else in the pub just let out frightened gasps.

Without warning, she lunged at Spyro, eyes wild and jaws dripping with saliva. He tried to side-step but he was too slow, causing Cynder to knock him into the ground with a heavy thud. Spots filled his vision as his head smacked against the hard cobblestone floor, and he felt dizzy. The spots cleared quickly, allowing him to catch sight of Cynder standing on top of him, pinning him to the ground. He didn't get a chance to react before Cynder wallopped him in the face, forcing a cry of pain out of him.

This was not a trick; this was _serious_.

Spyro's muscles rippled with energy as he kicked Cynder in the belly, knocking her off him, allowing him to stand up. He stepped forward, balling his paw into a fist as he aimed two punches towards her. The first one missed, but the second hook collided with her jaw. Cynder's head snapped to the side and she growled lowly.

With a roar she reared her head back before thrusting it forward, smashing her forehead into Spyro's. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his head as he felt the concussion throbbing in his skull, before he felt Cynder jump on top of him again. Spyro wriggled underneath her, flailing about with all his limbs to try and hit her, throwing his weight around to throw her off, but she was stronger than him, and his concussion was already proving to do a lot to him. Cynder growled, before punching him in the chest, leaving him winded as he fought for breath, groaning in pain.

She raised her paws again, but this time her claws were poised, ready to strike down on him, tear him to shreds, spill his blood. The weight suddenly disappeared from him as Cynder lost her balance, falling sideways off him, an arrow now embedded in her shoulder. Spyro turned to see Hunter reloading his bow with another arrow, the dragon's vision having cleared. "Hunter, what the…?" he inquired.

"I always carry my bow and some arrows on me, even at a time like this. Cheetah rules and culture," Hunter said, not taking his eyes off Cynder who was standing back up. "Now back down, Cynder. I don't want to have to shoot another arrow at you."

Cynder just snarled, eyeing Hunter, as well as Xareeva, Saradon, Hradir and Burdaar. Hunter's eyes narrowed, stepping forward in front of all the dragons. Although he was small and wasn't protecting much, he was still the first one to get through. Spyro slowly stood up, turning his eyes back to Cynder, who had completely forgotten about them. Her chest heaved with heavy, angry breaths.

Hating what he was about to do, Spyro lunged at Cynder, sending her crashing to the ground. She screamed and howled, thrashing about under Spyro. Her claws caught his chest and he had to fight not to step off her just to get away from the claws that had raked down his torso. Hunter leapt out at Cynder too, before grabbing the necklace with both hands and pulling violently on it, trying to yank it off her neck. After a few seconds' struggle, he was victorious as the silver band snapped, allowing the necklace to be freed from her. Cynder gasped as she went limp under Spyro's grasp, and her crimson eyes returned to the soft emerald colour Spyro had fallen in love with.

She seemed shocked upon waking, looking around the pub. "What… what happened?" she asked, before looking up at Spyro. "Spyro, what…?"

Cynder paused, gasping with shock as she saw the claw wounds on his chest. "Are you alright, Spyro?!" she exclaimed.

"Me?! What about _you_?! What the hell _happened_ to you to make you like this?! And forget what happened to me! What about all the other people that you've just scared and traumatised here?! _They_ won't be as forgiving as me?!" Spyro shouted.

Cynder looked around, suddenly noticing all the terrified faces in the pub. Her breath went heavy and began to shake, tears pricking her eyes. "I'm… s-s-so sorry," she murmured, fear edging her voice. "I d-d-didn't mean any of th-th-this, I _swear_."

"Where did you get this, Cynder?" Hunter asked, interrupting the argument that was beginning to spring up between the two.

Spyro and Cynder turned towards the cheetah who picked up the split necklace, purple crystal still glowing brightly. Cynder swallowed, before she started stammering, unsure where to start. "_Where_ did you _get_ this, Cynder?" Hunter repeated with a lot more force than the previous time.

"I-I-I-I got it from a store. Same store as I got my cloak from," Cynder explained, her voice small and trembling.

Hunter began to stalk towards Cynder, his blue eyes bright and threatening, contrasting against the dark eye shadow he wore. "Who attended the store? Who gave it to you?" he probed.

"Some… she-cheetah that wore a bunch of black, like most other people here. It's just a Halloween costume isn't it?"

"What colour was her fur?"

"Blue?"

"Did she have any tattoos? Shaped like serpents?"

"Yes, on her arms."

Hunter growled, throwing the necklace on the ground. The purple crystal shattered, causing purple mist to float up into the air. Hunter immediately realised his mistake and screamed, "EVERYBODY GET BACK!"

The middle of the pub was quickly emptied as everyone scrambled towards the edge of the wall. Spyro had stepped off Cynder, allowing her to stand, before he grabbed the traumatised fire dragon and pulled him back with him. The purple mist hovered in the air, motionless, wondering what to do.

"We should be safe here. This is dark magic from the arcane feline arts; it seeks down any soul, no matter what species, and tries to corrupt them and turn them against the ones they love," Hunter explained.

"Well why was that inside the damn necklace I bought?!" Cynder shouted.

"Because that she-cheetah you met is called Shora'avi, and she has been wanted dead in the cheetah village for the past five months. She became skilled in the dark arcane arts and tried to tear our village apart. She corrupted a cub and he killed his parents and younger brother, before he proceeded to kill himself. She sent herself into exile after that so we couldn't find her," Hunter explained, breath heavy as he stared at the swirling dark magic in the middle of the pub. "Shora'avi obviously must've ended up here, and you ended up as a victim of her dark magic; the crystal being on your neck must've caused you to react to it. You're lucky you weren't exposed to it for that long, Cynder. People known to have been corrupted by it for over six hours become irredeemable. And I fear that due to the fact that you already hold darkness inside you, that time frame might've become shortened."

"Well yeah, I was getting close to three since I put the necklace on," Cynder replied.

A heavy breeze suddenly blew through the pub and the ball of dark swirling energy wavered a bit, before it shot towards the crowd. Multiple dragons, moles and cheetahs shrieked, leaping out of the way, all except for one. It was Shora'avi, the she-cheetah that had sold Cynder the cloak and necklace. She turned and broke into a heavy sprint, making her way speedily towards the door.

"GET HER!" Hunter ordered, and two dragons lunged out at Shora'avi, but both missed as she ducked and dodged away from them.

A third dragon however whipped her tail around, slapping Shora'avi in the face, sending her flying backwards. Hunter ran forward, picking up Shora'avi in a neck hold, putting a dagger against her throat. "Good to see you again, Hunter," Shora'avi growled.

"Be quiet, Shora'avi. What are you doing here in Warfang?" Hunter demanded.

"I'm just trying to make a living, Hunter."

"Enough with the _idiocy_, Shora'avi! I _know_ what you're up to, and as soon as I saw the necklace I had an inkling that you were behind it! Why did you target Cynder?! No, why did you target _everyone_ here _by_ targeting Cynder?!"

Shora'avi just growled, before she muttered three words: "Go to hell."

The dagger was sliced clean across Shora'avi's throat, and the she-cheetah crumpled to the ground in a heap, limbs folding underneath each other limply. "At least she's out of the way now," Hunter murmured. "Prowlus will be happy to know she's dead."

"Couldn't you just filter the darkness out of her? I'm sure she could've still live a normal peaceful life," Cynder said.

"Feline magic is not like draconic magic; that's one thing you _need_ to know, Cynder. After a certain time period, all magic spells cast one someone or something become permanent and cannot be undone. She would forever be angry, mischievous, misleading, and filled with dark thoughts and intentions. Had you been the way you were for any longer, you would've been the same, and you would've had to be killed too, to save Warfang from your wrath."

Cynder just nodded, before whipping off her cloak. "I'm not sure I want this cloak now if this came from her," she said, placing the cloak on the ground and spitting poison on it. The sound and smell of dissolving fabric and bubbling acid filled the pub.

"That's probably for the best, Cynder," Hunter said. "Nobody knows what types of things she was selling."

Cynder just nodded. Spyro nuzzled Cynder, kissing her on the cheek, before he turned to the rest of the citizens in the pub. "Is everyone alright?" he bellowed.

There was hesitant agreement as everyone recovered from the fright of Cynder's attack, but it was an agreement nonetheless.

"That's good. Everything is safe now, you can return to your activities," Spyro said, and after another small hesitation, everyone began to move back to their tables or leave the pub.

"I'm thinking of leaving the pub too, Spyro," Cynder said to him. "You had a good idea earlier this evening; I just want to go straight home."

"That's probably for the best," Xareeva said, stepping up towards them, followed by Saradon, Hradir and Burdaar. "That looked like it did a great deal on you."

"Yeah, I feel tired. And also so terrible; I can't believe I did that," Cynder murmured.

"It wasn't your fault, Cynder. You didn't know about Shora'avi. I won't blame you for buying stuff from her," Hunter said. "Just be careful."

"I just assumed she was wearing a Halloween costume, tattoos included. I mean, you have some temporary tattoos, Hunter."

Hunter just chuckled. "That I do…"

"Anyway, we should probably be heading off," Spyro said, causing Cynder to nod in reply. "We'll see you all in the morning so we can… start this catch-up again, don't you think?"

"I agree," Hradir replied, and the other dragons, as well as Hunter, all agreed.

And so, with a unison 'goodbye' from their friends, Spyro and Cynder turned and left the pub, walking back home. It was a quiet walk home, and Spyro was just happy no one ended up trying to scare them after what just happened. In the safety of their home, they could talk.

"Spyro, I'm so sorry. I know I said I wasn't going to scare you, but I did, and it wasn't even out of a joke. It was a _real_ scare. I'm terribly sorry," Cynder said.

"It's alright, Cynder. There's nothing to be sorry about; it wasn't your fault," Spyro reassured her.

"Still, I scared you, and countless other people. You said you'd deck whoever scared you, so just get it done. I deserve it."

"No, Cynder. You don't. Plus, I kind of already did trying to protect myself from you."

"Yeah, my jaw still hurts a bit."

"My head hurts more."

"Shut up."

"Sorry," Spyro said playfully.

"It's alright," Cynder said, pausing for a good long while, eyes flickering about as she tried to figure out what to say. "I just… I just hope no one thinks any worse of me for that. People used to think I was a monster after the whole 'Terror of the Skies' stuff in the war. What if people think I'm like that again?"

"I'm sure they won't, but even if they do, we've convinced them once, right? We can do it a second time. Plus, we have Hunter and all those in the pub on our side. We had a lot of people witness what went down in there."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks, Spyro."

"You're welcome. Anyway, we should probably stop worrying about topics like these."

"Agreed, it's bedtime."

They made their way up to their bedroom, before lying down in their bed, snuggling up next to each other and whispering each other goodnight. Spyro planted a soft kiss on Cynder's cheek before they fell asleep, awaiting the next day eagerly.

* * *

**So this was not the new _Spyro_ story I said I was planning but this is my first oneshot and I'm super happy with it. This was written as part of a writing event on a Spyro Discord server I'm in that happened back in October for Halloween. We were given free range of the theme due to this one being the first one, but I wanted to do something spooky for Halloween (even though I don't celebrate it here in Australia lol). Also thanks to MysticOTDH for beta-reading this one.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Gonna upload the second one now because there's a second prompt going on at the moment.**


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